Omnivore™ was the primary tool used to capture all the digital video evidence before it was tagged and ingested into a video database allowing investigators to do keyword searches on thousands of hours of video evidence

BURTONSVILLE, Md. - Ocean Systems announces that Omnivore™, the latest addition to its suite of market leading forensic video analysis solutions, played a vital role in the highly successful investigation of the June 2011 Vancouver Hockey Riots. This investigation has been so successful in fact, that LEVA and Vancouver PD’s riot investigation team (IRIT) each have been awarded the 2012 IACP August Vollmer Excellence in Forensic Science Award.

In 2011 the Vancouver Police Department was challenged by the prospect of processing over 5,000 hours of crime scene video from hundreds of sources. Since then, that number has grown to over 10,000 hours of video, as video was released by the media under subpoena. With so much video to process, they requested the assistance of the LEVA National Digital Multimedia Processing Lab which is located at the University of Indianapolis in Indiana. With the decision made to use the lab, LEVA called up a team of over 40 certified forensic video investigators that assembled at the LEVA Lab to assist in the monumental and historic video investigation.

During a two week period in the fall of 2011, certified forensic video analysts and technicians worked around-the-clock at the lab in shifts to process and examine thousands of hours of video. First investigators used over twenty Omnivore drives to capture digital video from a multitude of sources including proprietary digital CCTV systems. Then they exported the video into a standard uncompressed format so they could ingest the video into their forensic video processing and analysis equipment that the lab utilizes. This equipment consists of an Avid ISIS shared storage solution that networks together twenty Ocean Systems workstations loaded with the full Ocean Systems dTective suite and Avid Media Composer. The ingested video was then tagged using identification codes that allow investigators to search thousands of hours of video and track suspects as they commit a multitude of offenses. This process allowed them to tag more than 15,000 criminal events that laid the foundation for future arrests. In 1994, a similar riot investigation required four months to process just 100 hours of video.

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Ocean Systems Omnivore™ is a portable 32 gigabyte thumb drive with specialized forensic video and image capture software that runs directly from the drive without the need to install and unlock the software on a local computer. Omnivore’s portability enables investigators the flexibility to use the tool where it is needed most without the need to install and register the capture software. Some investigators take the tool out to a crime scene and capture the video evidence directly from the system that recorded it while others, as in the 2011 riot investigation, collect and process their evidence back at the lab.

The Omnivore™ assists investigators with video processing by providing smart tools such as “video optimization” - a feature that samples the original video’s frame rate and screen size and then adjusts the video-capture settings so the video is captured properly without dropping frames. Once captured, the video can be saved and viewed in a standardized, uncompressed format such as QuickTime or AVI for future processing. With each capture, Omnivore™ generates a report that documents important information and statistics regarding the capture session. Once the video is captured, it can instantly be shared using the freely distributable Omnivore Viewer™. This allows investigators additional options to share the evidence with the media or to perform additional clarification and analysis using Ocean Systems ClearID™ Image Clarification or forensic video analysis, evidence presentation and archiving can be performed using the dTective® suite.

Grant Fredericks, lead LEVA instructor and one of the world’s leading Forensic Video Analysts and owner of Forensic Video Solutions, brought a unique perspective to the investigation. He was in charge of the Vancouver Police Department’s 1994 riot video investigation and was asked to manage the technical challenges for the 2011 investigation. Fredericks said that “Ocean Systems Omnivore™ was key to the success of the project.”

Availability and Pricing
The Law Enforcement price of the Omnivore™ is $495 USD for a single unit with volume discounts available for multiple unit and government discounts available.

About Ocean Systems
Since 1999, Ocean Systems has been providing multi-media evidence clarification and case management systems to law enforcement. Since then, dTective® has become an industry standard and the system of choice of over 1,500 Local, State and Federal Law Enforcement Agencies in the US and around the world. For more information visit the official website.

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